Book Review: The Numerati – How They’ll Get My Number And Yours, by Stephen Baker

Sunday Business Post, 16th November 2008 How the digital dungeon has imprisoned us all We are all Winston Smith. We are the office functionaries in a new, global Ministry of Truth, where our phonecalls, purchases and blog-postings can all become important fodder for statisticians around the world. These statisticians are known as the ‘Numerati’. Business […]

I do like to stroll along the prom, prom, prom…

If you fancy coming over a bit David Lynch for a day, you could do worse than stroll along Clontarf walkway this Saturday, November 8. Out Of Site presents Promenade, an inspirational live art event, where 10 artists make use of the sheltered bathing and seating areas, the walkway itself and even the sea along the walkway to present […]

Pointless Nostalgia: Peters And Lee

“Welcome Home…” Such a sweet song and yet, for some bizarre reason, it haunts me in a way that makes me shudder. It was one of those songs that soundtracked a part of my very young childhood and not necessarily the bits I want to remember. Lennie Peters and Dianne Lee couldn’t have happened in […]

I See Sacked People…

The papers may have done their best to ruin the surprise for us but it didn’t make TV3’s The Apprentice any less compulsive last night. OK, I’ll qualify that – it was, by far, the dullest challenge the contestants have had thus far; collecting rubbish (albeit extraordinarily valuable, recyclable rubbish) and stacking it in cages hardly makes for […]

Pootsie Pizza, Pootsie Pasta

There’s a vicious rumour going around (or maybe I simply dreamt it) that one of the mainstays of globalised, Muppet-centric, gastronomic mimicry is changing its name. A chain world-famous for selling so-called pizza is to temporarily rebrand to make a big deal out of its so-called pasta. I know, it sounds like the punchline of […]

A Nose For A Good Story…

Fair play to the Daily Mail hack whose feature, ‘Smart Scent’, about perfumes which “say they’ll make you seem slimmer, sexier – even more intelligent” was published today. Clearly, the commissioning editor correctly decided that any article about the miracle of scent would be best written by someone who goes by the name of Alice Smellie. Reminds […]

New Ten(n)ant Required For Best Role on TV

It was inevitable really but it doesn’t make it any easier to bear. David Tennant is to leave Doctor Who after the last of 2009’s four special editions of the programme. The versatile Scots actor, who has played the tenth incarnation of The Doctor since 2005, has decided enough is enough, saying, “I think it’s […]

Orange Juice Back Together!

Christmas has come early to I Have Grave News. The original line-up of the best Scottish group ever are to regroup to receive an award. Orange Juice, whose later line-up split up following a benefit gig for the miners at London’s Brixton Academy in January 1985, are set to be honoured by Nordoff-Robbins Scotland, after frontman Edwyn Collins’ astonishing […]

Make Irony History

Brian Cowen calling for a global response to the “scandal” of world hunger; Bono to write a column about poverty in the New York Times; what’s next, I wonder? Morrissey to give a lecture on sex addiction? Gordon Ramsay to publish a book of his favourite vegetarian recipes? Robert Mugabe to write and present a […]

Book Review: The Complete Book of Mothers-In-Law – A Celebration by Luisa Dillner

The Sunday Business Post, October 26, 2008 A witty and overdue celebration of the uncelebrated ‘There was a knock at the door; I knew it was the wife’s mother, because the mice were throwing themselves on the traps.” So said the late, great Les Dawson, a man whose name was practically synonymous with the mother-in-law […]